Comments on: Shojo Beat – The Final 2http://manga.jadedragononline.com/blog/2009/07/01/shojo-beat-the-final-2/
Manga News, Reviews and CommentaryThu, 30 Jul 2015 02:03:40 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3By: Ahttp://manga.jadedragononline.com/blog/2009/07/01/shojo-beat-the-final-2/#comment-889
Mon, 13 Sep 2010 07:03:18 +0000http://manga.jadedragononline.com/?p=1403#comment-889A visitor from the UK here, who happened upon your site looking for manga reviews. In my experience there are at least a few reasons for not subscribing to magazines, from a customer’s point of view; for one, somewhere along the way in the postal system, there is a chance of magazines getting wrecked before arriving. As a collector of manga, having a magazine arrive with a cover torn or even, in one case, a magazine’s spine torn in half, is not an ideal situation. Another issue is that for a lot of manga anthologies, subscriptions just aren’t possible outside the US, no matter how much of a discount or what free gifts are offered, they either just aren’t available; or, in the case of Yen+, which did offer subscriptions in the UK for a while, they were actually more expensive than buying the magazine at an import comic shop each month, and even they stopped eventually… so all we have left is the Tokyopop manga published in NEO magazine. A final issue is when a magazine comes with a gift like a CD or DVD in a thin paper wallet, it can end up broken (although that could be considered as part of the same issue as my first point), though as far as I am aware DVDs as free gifts aren’t as often in the US as they are in the UK, for example here this week two newspapers are giving away free DVDs every day.
Despite all these issues compared to, say, the relative easiness of probably finding most of the current manga in the magazines distributed online, I still try to support the manga industry if I can, and I get Shonen Jump, Yen+ and NEO, monthly, as well as other magazines like Mixx and NewtypeUSA, from before their downfall. Yen+ going digital means for the first time I can actually subscribe to it without any intermediary like an import shop or eBay, or having any of the issues I listed, and sure enough I signed up on the first day (although I’m not advocating their online move itself, and would prefer a print version if it came with the same implications, but I guess that wasn’t to be.).
]]>By: gabrielahttp://manga.jadedragononline.com/blog/2009/07/01/shojo-beat-the-final-2/#comment-888
Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:31:42 +0000http://manga.jadedragononline.com/?p=1403#comment-888ALL WE HAVE LEFT IS SHONEN JUMP….and its mostly for guys…!!!!!!!!
]]>By: gabrielahttp://manga.jadedragononline.com/blog/2009/07/01/shojo-beat-the-final-2/#comment-887
Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:29:34 +0000http://manga.jadedragononline.com/?p=1403#comment-887i did not know it was dis continueing….How do you get previous issues??? i missed the last six T-T
]]>By: Tiffanyhttp://manga.jadedragononline.com/blog/2009/07/01/shojo-beat-the-final-2/#comment-886
Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:31:17 +0000http://manga.jadedragononline.com/?p=1403#comment-886bring back shojo beat!! (if that’s possible)http://www.gopetition.com/online/29281.html
]]>By: Lori Hendersonhttp://manga.jadedragononline.com/blog/2009/07/01/shojo-beat-the-final-2/#comment-885
Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:50:48 +0000http://manga.jadedragononline.com/?p=1403#comment-885Unfortunately, there isn’t a mag that features just articles and manga aimed at girls. Viz has Shonen Jump, which is more boys action, which if you like that, it’s great. Yen Press also has a magazine, Yen Plus (Yen+) that’s rated the same as Shojo Beat, 16+, and is half Japanese manga and half Korean/US manga. The Korean side has some good shojo-esque titles, but I personally didn’t like any of the Japanese titles, and skipped on it. I think it would be worth checking out now though, as they’ve added Hero Tales (same mangaka as Fullmetal Alchemist) and other that looked interesting.
]]>By: Tiffanyhttp://manga.jadedragononline.com/blog/2009/07/01/shojo-beat-the-final-2/#comment-884
Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:27:24 +0000http://manga.jadedragononline.com/?p=1403#comment-884it’s sad that Shojo Beat’s coming to an end. I just started reading it a few months ago, but never subscribed (i was planning on it though, ’till i went on the site and realized it would no longer be on the newstands)… does anyone know of another magazine similar to it?
]]>By: Lori Hendersonhttp://manga.jadedragononline.com/blog/2009/07/01/shojo-beat-the-final-2/#comment-883
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:09:00 +0000http://manga.jadedragononline.com/?p=1403#comment-883Shojo Beat probably would have survived if more people who said they bought it had subscribed to it. In the magazine business, it subscriptions, not books sold that rules the roost. Hopefully this will be a lesson to people who want their books and mags to continue, to do so in a manner that will help the most. Books, pre-order as much as possible! Magazines, subcribe! It’s cheaper anyway, I don’t understand the people that paid the newstand price instead of taking advantage of rhe subscription price.
]]>By: Heather Wardhttp://manga.jadedragononline.com/blog/2009/07/01/shojo-beat-the-final-2/#comment-882
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:13:57 +0000http://manga.jadedragononline.com/?p=1403#comment-882Well I would certainly like to know what kind of inflation has happened since Manga Vizion and Animerica Extra could never get more than 4 – 6000 readers a month while SB had over 30,000 subscribers and charged $1 more than Shonen Jump. I know there were vast differences in production costs, because of color and paper quality, but I think the magazine could have continued if the management of VIZ desired it. Now they may have another mag on the horizon, like Yen+ that carries shonen and shoujo or they may be gearing up to feature things online. Hopefully VIZ will offer some answers at AX this weekend.
]]>By: Brian Hendersonhttp://manga.jadedragononline.com/blog/2009/07/01/shojo-beat-the-final-2/#comment-881
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:36:50 +0000http://manga.jadedragononline.com/?p=1403#comment-881As much as I hate to say it, it isn’t Viz that’s marginalizing shoujo manga, it’s manga readers. I’ve made the point many times about many different things, in order to remain in production, a publication must make enough money to support itself and produce a profit for the manufacturer. If it doesn’t, then it gets dropped and rightfully so. This applies to a manga (or manga magazine like Shoujo Beat) or to comics being carried in Previews. You either make a product that can support itself or that product ought to go away. That’s basic capitalism. There is no “fair” or “right”, there’s just money and when the money fails to pay the bills, the product vanishes, as it should.
]]>By: Heather Wardhttp://manga.jadedragononline.com/blog/2009/07/01/shojo-beat-the-final-2/#comment-880
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:29:07 +0000http://manga.jadedragononline.com/?p=1403#comment-880I too, noticed those little things about the last SB issue. I was really hoping since the news had already come out, that VIZ would formally acknowledge the end with this last issue. Unfortunately as I sat thinking about it there was a good chance that this last issue went to the printer one to two weeks before VIZ cancelled the magazine.

I too must decide which series to continue. I enjoy all of them at times. The short episodic nature of Haruka plays nicely, but does not compel me to care about seeing the ending. Vampire Knight is a fine gothic story for young teenagers, but as an adult I am only pleased by the artwork, not story. Now the other four were more enjoyable then the rest. The hardest to cut from the list is Crimson Hero. It’s textbook sports manga from the female perspective. I have loved Nobara’s spunk since the first chapter. It’s the thought that this series is no where near it’s end that I am on the fence with this title. Looking up on Wikipedia, Crimson Hero is only 4 volumes ahead of the English releases and Right Stuf lists the next new volume in JAN 2010. With this prolonged print schedule I may be able to keep supporting this series. Honey Hunt reminds me alot of Glass Kamen or Swan. The drama and work struggling stars sludge through is very complelling. I just don’t know if I will spend the $10 for the work. Now down to the two series that are definitely on my must-buy list. They are also both completed in Japan, so I know fully how much I must invest, 10 volumes a piece. Sand Chronicles documents so well first love and other teenage self doubt. It’s also a series I actually more enjoy reading in larger chunks, two to three issues at a time. Honey and Clover again shows that self doubt continues into young adulthood at college. I can’t wait to see how each of these two series conclude.

The saddest thing is seeing shoujo manga marginalized again. I do hope VIZ will do online chapter one previews of each of their new shoujo series. I know these would not fully sway me to make a purchase, but it would give me a better idea rather than just seeing the cover and a 3 sentence summary.

Farwell Shoujo Beat, I loved each and every issue and will miss this monthly gift.